Heavy downpours across South Florida on a soggy Sunday triggered some major tree trouble in a South Miami neighborhood and caused extensive flooding in the region.
A massive cleanup effort got underway near Southwest 74th Street and 63rd Avenue, Sunday afternoon.
Arborist Ron von Paulus with Big Ron’s Tree Service told 7News an enormous tree was knocked down during the severe storms — its roots pulled clean right out of the ground.
“It’s got to be at least 60 to 80 years old,” he said.
Von Paulus was called for the emergency and has spent hours clearing nearing 200 yards of debris.
He said some fast flooding likely caused this tree to go down.
“That little bit of soil is just super saturated and is no longer holding on to the roots,” he said. “So you can have a 40, 50-mile-an-hour wind on a big sail like the canopy of this tree, when the roots aren’t grabbing — because right this moment, there’s so much water in the ground — and it just falls over.”
7News cameras captured the property damage caused by the uprooted tree.
“It’s in two houses, on one house and everything else. It’s not fun for these folks,” said von Paulus.
The tree also smashed neighbor Roberto Elizondo’s car.
“I was in the room, I had the TV on, it was raining. I did hear like a thump, but didn’t make much of it,” he said.
When he came out of his home, Elizondo was shocked.
“I mean, I kind of peeked through, and yeah, there’s branches and everything on top of the windshield. The windshield is smashed,” he said.
The inclement weather impacted many areas in South Florida.
Cutler Bay saw massive flooding. In other areas, water rose so high, people recorded themselves swimming in it, and some neighborhoods even got hail.
The weather comes during a very busy weekend. People visiting Miami Gardens for the weekend’s Formula 1 event dealt with some gloomy weather. However, the race was not delayed.
As for this cleanup in South Miami, crews hope to have this well-traveled street back open on Monday.
“It’s like the ant eats the elephant — one bite at a time, just little pieces,” said von Paulus. “You just do it safely and pay a lot of attention.”